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Saturday, October 3, 2009

Slice/Dice Highlights from the Demo

Last week Kenji Alt told SFBU everything we ever wanted to know about kitchen knives. From sharpening on the stone, to making "the claw" with your left hand to protect your fingers and guide the cut, we're a little more skilled now in the slice and dice department. Practice makes perfect, so check it out- short videos to jog your memory:

The picture of efficiency, Japanese knives for chopping.

"Regular julienne is probably 1/8 inch to 1/16 inch or so, so you wanna try and cut it into straight planks like that, um and again you always use your left hand to guide the blade. And once you get about 4 or 5 slices, we'll go to the next step."

"Trim off a quarter inch and put it aside, and then we're just gonna cut them into 1/8 inch to 1/16 inch little sticks, and thats called a julienne."

"And if you were really serious about this, I mean, if you wanted a really sharpened blade you would do this for about 20 minutes or so."

Bottom line: Knowing how to cut precisely and in uniform pieces allows food to cook more evenly and ultimately, you have a better result. Looking like a pro and impressing your friends is also a plus. Find more photos from the demo here and check out Kenji's blog, goodeater.org. Thanks to the Myles basement kitchen crew for letting us use their space, Kenji for an awesome and informative demo, and everyone that came out to participate!